Accidentally stowing away on a pirate ship was the last thing artist Phoenix Wright had wanted. Now he either chooses to learn the ways of the pirate and get wrapped up in a family secret, or go back to being...boring. AU, yo.

It's been awhile since I've written anything--my bad, I've got a boyfriend and two jobs now.

I've been wanting to write something like this for awhile now. Mostly because I really like pirates, that and I thought it'd be kinda fun to play with the Phoenix Wright characters as pirates. Please excuse some of my terminology as I do play Puzzle Pirates a lot, and some of my terms and definitions come from that game merely out of habit.

This story is an alternate universe fanfic, with plenty of Phoenix Wright...storyline elements? This story is based on the storyline of the games (from Ace Attorney to Trials and Tribulations), with many different twists...it's almost original, yet still very familiar. You will all see what I mean.

There is no homosexuality, just so you know. Don't expect Phoenix and Miles to 'get it on'. And with that, please enjoy.

The Pirates' LifeChapter One: Setting Sail

It was well known amongst the islands that scattered the mighty seas that the Fey family held a great secret. The women from the long family line were actually quite known for having what some would say, "strange connections", and it was those "strange connections" that gave them an ability to see things that normal people might miss...like a mysterious island. This was a fact, as such an island existed and the only access anyone would ever think of having to it would have to be through a member of the Fey family, particularly through those specific members who actually had the knowledge of where this island was situated.

However, that was the only fact anyone across the seas ever had about the Fey family. Rumors filled in the rest, such as the island holding riches beyond one's wildest dreams, or majestic creatures that roamed the land. No one ever said it could not be true, but no one could ever say that it was.

Still, as one might guess, the family was rather famous and the knowledge of the island's location was constantly sought after. It never surprised anyone in the coastal town of Llam that there was always someone needing to have a meeting with the current Lady of the Fey household, Mia. Many a time she would send away a man or foul woman with bitter words in their mouths, and it was when her meetings ended like this that the townsfolk knew that another one tried to harvest the family secret, whether through charm or bribery.

And, as one might again guess, on one particularly quiet day, a man made his second stop in recent times to the Fey estate...

"Lady Mia!" the voice of the young maid called through the chamber door, "the Captain White has returned, and he says he would like to have an urgent meeting with you…"

However, Mia heard nothing after the word "returned". She stood before her tall window overlooking the sea and closed her eyes. Her thoughts carried her back to her mother; such pride, and what sacrifices this family, especially her mother, had to make on a daily basis. Much like the late Misty Fey, Mia had pride and plenty to share, and she also had her family's well being to adhere to.

She was brought back to attention when another knocking by the maid came through the door. Mia opened her eyes and stared at the sea, and then stole a glance around the room she was in. She reached out and touched the red, velvety drapes in front of her, and took in their form—their length, the fabric's strength and thickness—everything she could think of. She looked over to her right where there was another door leading to a section of the family's library (and through it could she hear the navy captain, Captain Grossberg grunting away as he picked through shelves), and to the right of that door stood the stone fireplace where there hung a portrait of Misty and her two daughters, Mia herself, and her younger sister, Maya. Beside it were a couple of red armchairs surrounding the heavy, and small, cherry wood tea table. Her eyes continued to move toward the chamber door, and she took a few steps toward it to answer her maid's calls.

"Please give me a few moments as I ready myself; if he has the nerve to complain that is his own fault for giving me such short notice for this meeting," Mia called as she then turned on her heel and headed toward the library door. The maid, obviously unknowing of this, merely nodded and answered, "Yes, milady" and headed off to the entrance hall where Captain White was impatiently waiting.

Meanwhile, a few ways across town at the harbour, a young black-haired man sporting a cloth bag filled with a couple of small canvases, a select few brushes, and even fewer, almost empty paint bottles took a seat near one of the docks and leaned against a full barrel. He took a look around at the scenery, almost certain that this would be a good spot after he had already changed location several times before then.

The wind blew gently, the air smelled of sea salt and strange fish, and a rather sophisticated woman just pushed a gentleman off the dock. He smiled, knowing nothing could have possibly gotten better than this, and carefully dug out whatever he had left of a piece of charcoal and began to sketch on one of his canvases.

"Lady Mia will be seeing you now…"

The rather elaborately dressed captain, glinting with gold all over his black and violet buccaneer jacket, barely waited as the young maid led him the way to the aforementioned chamber, nearly stepping on her heels as they went along. He walked into the room and immediately smiled and gave a very gentleman-like bow, sweeping off his hat in one smooth motion toward the Lady Mia, who sat patiently waiting in one of the armchairs by the fireplace in her long, lacy white dress, and her hair wound up into a loose bun on the back of her head, her usual bulky, gold, coin-like headpiece secured snugly to her hair on the left side of her head. She stared politely at him and stood to give him a proper curtsy in return.

"This is very sudden of you, Captain White. I would have expected you and your pirate crew to be long gone by now," Mia said, taking the necessary steps to make the trip to the fireplace and giving a glance back to him, which made him obediently follow to where she was.

"I would have thought I would have been gone, too, if I had not had some time to stop and think about what you said the other day while I was here…"

He heard the soft, yet distinct sound of scraping—metal scraping. He could see her hesitate before she turned quickly to face him, her proud smile still showing on her face. His eyes darted over her for a second and he realized she had ahold of something, trying to hide it by tucking her hand slightly in the folds of her skirt. He smirked knowingly at her.

"I'd like to have the map, Lady Mia," he said.

"I'd like to not have to have this chat again, sir," she replied, her expression falling into something borderline aggravation. At the same time, his expression also became more serious, and he took a slightly threatening step toward her, staring down deep in her eyes as he did so.

"I think you need to reconsider this." She did not falter.

"I think you need to leave."

His eyes never left hers as he started reaching toward her left hand with his right, anger rising slowly in his voice as he asked, "What are you trying to hide in your hand?"

Mia's eyes widened, and she quickly tried to whip her hand out of the way, but not before Captain White snatched it first. She winced in fear as he gripped her wrist tightly and used his other hand to pry open hers.

He would have said something along the lines of "Nice try" if it was not for the fact that when he forced open her hand and looked down into it all he saw was a rather large silver coin. Confusion itched at the top of his head until he saw something quickly move out of the corner of his eye. As he looked up, Lady Mia's free fist bashed him hard in the jaw. The shock was enough to make him drop her arm, and as he stumbled to get up she made sure to swing her foot around to kick him in the side of the head as well.

He bellowed in pain, and around the room Mia could hear unfamiliar footsteps in the rooms surrounding her. Figuring this would be the best chance she had, and with little time, she bolted for the window, whose drapes now lay on the floor, attached to the sturdy tea table, which had been so oddly placed by the window earlier. She grabbed ahold of the drapes tightly as she took a leap from the window, using her feet against the wall to make sure she had not fallen too fast.

Hitting the ground, she heard a window smash. Without looking to see what it was or where it came from, she tore off the skirt she was wearing to reveal a pair of black pants and rather large brown boots underneath—and with that, she took off toward the harbour, knowing that escaping her own home was the easy part of her plan.

Across from the long front yard of the Fey house, in a blacksmith's shop across the street, Maya Fey watched uneasily as the vicious pirates belonging to Captain White's crew tore in and out of the household. Judging by the increasing amount of pirates that ran off in one direction outside of the house, she could tell Mia had at least made it out. She shivered while staring out the window, and turned her head to Captain Grossberg, who had settled himself down to a cup of tea.

"Captain Grossberg…do you really think my sister will be okay?" she asked, trying to keep the quivering out of her voice as she spoke. Grossberg on the other hand smiled warmly as he took a large sip of his tea.

"Lady Mia will be more than okay, I can assure you. Your sister knows what she is doing, Miss Maya."

Mia's first idea, once outside, was to steal through a thick grouping of trees situated by the house. She figured she could buy some more time if she could lose some of her pursuers in the clambering through the trees. She took extra caution to avoid tripping over fallen branches and uproots, her hair loosening as it painfully caught onto branches while she whipped by. Behind her she could hear almost a melody of 'thuds', and the loud snapping or two of branches. Up ahead she could see a clearing that lead out to the main street by the harbour and she picked up her speed a bit, admittedly become a bit careless as she did so.

One stumble just before her escape from the little forest, without taking the fall, was all that came of her as she bolted out into the sunlit streets, weaving in and out of crowds heading to and from the market.

Along one of the docks by a large, older-looking ship, a crew of scraggly men were in the middle of lunch when they saw the familiar figure of a brown-headed woman in a lacy dress top tear down the dock, another crew of men following shortly after. Some of the men stared while others began to pull out a sword.

"Pack it up, pack it up—get out!" Mia screeched as she made a quick turn, running up the walk onto the ship just as the crew of men jumped forward to collide in a ferocious fight with Captain White's crew.

Nearby, as more and more pirates joined the fray, citizens of the town began fleeing the scene. The young artist sitting by the barrel, artwork tightly clutched in his hands, watched in horror as people failed to escape; the fight was only between these two groups of people, but anyone found in the way was killed. When a young blonde woman had her throat sliced and took her fall in front of him, that was when he knew it was time for him to either leave or die himself. He jumped up in a panic, quickly in search of somewhere—anywhere—to go. He saw on the other side of him another barrel, an empty one, and thought of only two things: would he fit, and would they kick it into the water so he could drown?

Without hesitating any longer, he leaped into the barrel, shutting it tightly, and hugging his knees close as he prayed he would make it out of this alive.

Practically leaping down the stairs to the ship's under quarters, Mia frantically searched for a suitable weapon to defend herself with. Settling upon a short sword hanging on the right side of the wall behind her, she clutched the enamel handle tightly as she took the stairs, two at a time, back up to see how everything was going. Looking over the side of the ship she saw the fight had spread largely into a section of the main street, and it became more crowded out on the dock as both crews slowly made their way onto the boat.

Breathing deeply through her nose, she took a run down toward the docks, ferociously swinging her sword as her enemies swung theirs to her. She was not afraid in the least of this crew as she had fought others that were much stronger, and she could feel it as her sword collided with the others—she had to admit she was not one for an immense physical strength, but strength was only an advantage where technique was most vital—and technique was what she had.

As men took the plummet into the water around them, Mia grabbed one of her officers and said, "Grab the barrels. Grab whatever you can, we have to go." He merely nodded and pushed through as more of White's crew started showing up around them. Mia caught the eye of Captain White himself in the distance and, while he darted toward her, she ran back aboard the ship; if it was a fight he was after, he was going to play in her lair with her rules, afterall. She made it as far as the middle of the ship where the helm sat when she heard the heavy footsteps of the enraged Captain White, and as she turned to face him she could not help but feel slightly uneasy when she saw a twisted smile spread across his face.

"Well done, Captain Fey. I've never known a woman who could actually plan something so elaborate, escape and all," he said, slowly stepping toward her while he unsheathed his own sword, "but I am a busy man, and I ask you once again for you to willingly cooperate--"

"Get off my ship," Mia spat, "I've got nothing for you."

"Be like that," were the only words Captain White coldly said before lunging towards her, quickly bringing his sword up toward her throat. Much to his surprise, she brought her own upward in time to merely clash against his. Pulling them back apart, they swung again and again—different angles, different speeds and strengths. Mia leaped back as White threw his sword into a stab at her chest, and in return she took one fake swing to her left, and just as he went to follow she quickly and expertly brought her sword back around to his. With a loud clanging of the metal, she felt slight relief to know she had disarmed him.

However, letting her guard down a little too early, he used one arm to knock into the one which she held her sword in, and with his other, which was sporting brilliantly gleaming brass knuckles, took a shot into the side of her head. The force of the blow sent her into the mast, and as she tried to deal with the ringing pain in her head she lifted her arm to try to take another swing at him with her sword. He wrestled it out of her hand and threw her to the deck; instinctively, she rolled against a wall and tried to use that to help herself up. White came at her again while she was bent over, apparently still trying to regain her focus, and as he got close enough to seize one of her arms she whipped out a dagger that had been concealed in her dress top and stabbed him once in the stomach.

Letting out a yelp in pain, White dropped Mia and bent over his own wound for a moment, trying to dig the dagger out. Before he could continue, three officers of the Fey crew exploded into the scene, two of them throwing themselves into White to throw him off the side of the ship. Another scream and a splash later, the two men turned back to the third who was trying to help Mia up. She slapped her help away with a disoriented hand, and clutched the wall behind her tightly as she stood to her feet as tall and proud as she could. They smiled at her, and she smiled straight ahead.

"We've set sail now. Our barrels and crates are in, save for a few left in the street yet, and we've gone and set ourselves to sail much quicker than ol' White there; it'll be awhile before he catches up with us," one of the officers said happily.

They looked at her, waiting for her reply. They stood there silently as she continued to stare ahead, apparently unaware of what they were saying. Her body swayed slightly then, and as she fell back to the deck unconscious, her crew members frantically searched for help screaming, "Captain! Captain, are you alright?!"

If it was one thing that the mysterious Fey family was known for, it was the secret that the family held so dear. So much, in fact, that the Fey women entrusted with such knowledge were known to do anything they felt they had to in order to protect it and their family.

You see what I mean though, right? Familiarity, yet something twisted. I feel like I am still writing fanfiction rather than just ripping off Capcom, you know?

I have nothing else to say at this time besides I am quite surprised at how quickly I managed to get the first chapter actually written. I am hoping to have the second chapter done just as promptly...though this weekend is hard as I have much work to do--back-to-back, and every day. I am working 15+ hour days at times, and now seeing a chiropractor.

You people don't care about that. Wait patiently for the next chapter.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.